Turtle Walking Tradition

Opening days: Daily

Opening hours: 08.00 - 17.00

 

Turtle Walking Tradition The time when many sea turtles come to lay their eggs on the beach. When the spawning season is about the 11th month of the waning moon around the end of October or early November until the 4th month around the beginning of February As for before or after this time, there are a few.

 

The importance of turtle walking tradition is to find sea turtles that come up to lay their eggs on the beach There are many sources of turtle walking in the south. Especially the area where sea turtles come to lay their eggs is the coast. west coast line or the Andaman coast, including the western part of Phang Nga Province This is a sandy beach with a length of 100 kilometers in which the coastal area. There will be many types of sea turtles coming up to lay their eggs on the beach. when the spawning season There are several species of sea turtles that lay eggs along the west coast. which the villagers call it by many names, such as the turtle, the gear turtle, the small turtle, the long-tailed turtle, etc.

 

Each year, each sea turtle lays its eggs four times. More peculiar and interesting than other sea turtles, the sea turtle's spawning habit is that it lays its eggs stationary or on the beach, despite the vastness of the sea. For example, any sea turtle That comes up to spawn at any beach next time comes up to spawn at that beach every time annually May be except that sometimes it may come up to find disturbing people may have to switch to another beach nearby.

 

Villagers in the past were able to collect turtle eggs. by taking advantage of the memory of the turtle Because each sea turtle lays eggs anywhere. After that for a week or two, this same turtle will come up and spawn again at the same beach But the position that crawled up to spawn would be about 10-20 meters away from the previous spawning place, probably because it was afraid to dig in the egg pit that had already been laid. As for when the villagers had to calculate by Counting the water that the due date for spawning is the waxing or waning day. It is enough to know what time the tide is up and half the tide goes down. which is the time when turtles lay eggs.

 

Then can take the basket to wait for the turtle eggs correctly without having to walk around and do not have to waste time looking for the turtle egg pit later, such as the first time to lay eggs in the eighth waning moon of the 11th month, the next time it will rise Lay again on the 15th day of the waning moon of the 11th month (after the previous 7 days) or may not come up to spawn on this day It will come up and lay eggs on the 7th day of the 12th lunar month (14 days after the previous one). From the words of the villagers who had received a turtle egg concession or known in the original language as "Phueng Tao", they said that using this method eliminates the need to walk for them. I'm tired Maybe even lying at home, when it's time to calculate it, you can walk and sit and wait at that point. And it's always right every time.

 

But at present The tradition of walking turtles is no longer there. Because local people have cooperated to conserve marine species in the Andaman Sea, including sea turtles, etc. If any person violates the It is considered an illegal act and can be prosecuted by law.

 

Rituals The tradition of walking turtles is performed at night. which starts from dusk until dawn For the new generation, if they do not have much knowledge may walk along the length of the sandy beach a distance of several kilometers without finding turtle eggs Even a single hole (nest hole) was possible, but for the older generations there were several tips for finding turtle eggs. The first was when the turtle came up to lay eggs. When the turtle comes up to lay eggs, you can see it.

 

1. Look at the star turtle. This star turtle consists of many stars that a skilled person will see as a turtle. where the star turtle begins to turn its head down west That is, the star turtle begins to sag (like the sun from 19.00 o'clock onwards). When the star turtle turns its head into the sea, it is time to walk the turtle. The ancients believed that turtles came to lay eggs at this time.

 

2. Look at the water, referring to the sea water going up and down. If the tide is up half the shore or half tide It's time for sea turtles to come up and lay their eggs. The sea turtles did not appear when the tide was receding.

Consequently, sea turtles have a unique time to lay their eggs. Depends on whether it's a lunar day or a waning day How many nights will the tide keep changing?

 

Turtle walking tradition Local villagers can recognize sea turtles coming up to lay their eggs from the turtle's crawl marks. on the sand which can be clearly seen because it will use both pairs to chop down on the sand and drag themselves up therefore appearing traces in a manner similar to that of a small tractor It appears that there are two paths, one way up, one way down. From this trail, it can be said that sea turtles must have come to lay their eggs. But finding a hole where the turtles lay their eggs is quite difficult. because the sandy beach is wide Villagers in the past who had knowledge There are several methods of observing the hole for turtle eggs:

 

1. Look at the tip of the sand. It means to observe the sand that the turtle dug up and splash around the body while digging a hole to lay eggs. Will be visible as a line around the hole at a reasonable distance. which can be assumed that the area from next to the end of the sand Must be a turtle egg hole But sometimes this is uncertain because turtles are often camouflaged or deceived by splashing the sand in several places, but do not actually lay eggs. To see if the turtles deceive us or not, look at the splashing sand. If it's wet sand or clumps, then it's the actual spawning hole. because it is sand that is mined from the lower layers of sand or from the bottom of the hole.

 

2. Use a pointed stick to stab or what the villagers call "sak" into the sand to a depth of about 2 feet and observe that Is the stick that has been stabbed abnormally? If it is abnormal, for example, it can easily be stabbed down immediately, it may be stabbed on the turtle hole. May be tested by sniffing the tip of a stick. If stabbed in the egg pit, there will be a fishy smell of turtle eggs sticking to the end of the stick.

 

3. If it is daytime, see where the flies are swarming. because the spiders will swarm the egg-laying area which has a fishy slime while the sea turtle lays its eggs.

 

If all three methods cannot find the spawning hole In the past, villagers used the last method. is to observe the sand at the area where there are turtle marks around 07.00-08.00 o'clock, it will be found that the area of ​​the turtle egg pit will look like a vapor or smoke. This may be due to the high temperature of the eggs. When it comes in contact with the coldness of the lower layer of sand, it causes exothermic reactions. and a vapor can form above the sand.

 

The number of turtle eggs in each hole, known in the local language as "nest", has a different number according to the type of turtle. and the order of laying eggs, such as turtles, the first time may be 80 eggs per nest, next time may be up to 120 eggs, and then decrease until the last time there may be about 3-4 eggs, the rest are eggs without yolks, which are called "eggs Wind" The small turtle lays about 100 eggs the first time, about 150 eggs the next time, the last time is reduced to a few eggs. The leatherback turtle has about 125 eggs, while the long-tailed turtle has the most about 150 eggs.